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Abstract

The objective of the research was to assess the outcomes on the spray patterns produced by the different feasible adjustments of two different air blast sprayers and one mist blower sprayer, commonly employed for treatments to Apulian “tendone” vineyards. The spray profiles of these machines and the respective refinements affected by the alteration of the available adjusting devices were evaluated using a test bench, suitably set up for calibrating the sprayers used inside such vines. The air blast sprayers, compared with the mist blower model, have a better chance to match the spray pattern and the canopy profile of the “tendone” vines. Furthermore, the left-right asymmetry of the spray profile is reduced only in the case of sprayers with two counter-rotating fans, under certain operating conditions. Conversely, the symmetry index worsens with the activation of the fan in the case of the air blast sprayer fitted with a single fan either with or without the air deflectors. The mist blower sprayer develops lower drawbacks, in terms of left-right asymmetry of the spray profile, even if the high “stiffness” of the spray profile makes this sprayer not particularly suitable to the changing needs of the canopy of the “tendone” vineyards. The obtained results, even if related to the analyzed sprayers, can represent an original base of reference to set up guidelines for the adjustment of sprayers used for treatments inside “tendone” vineyards, very useful for the officially authorized Apulian workshops to make sprayers inspection and calibration.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).